PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Oregon-born wolf looking for a mate in the wilds of Northern California has moved to lower ground as winter approaches.

California Department of Fish and Game program manager Karen Kovacs told The Oregonian that winter storms lashing the high country south of Lassen Peak have forced deer to lower elevations, and the wolf known as OR-7 has followed.

His satellite tracking collar has shown him in oak-chaparral woodlands east of Red Bluff, Calif.

Kovacs says this is his first foray into that kind of habitat.

The wolf gained celebrity after leaving its home ground in northeastern Oregon and journeying hundreds of miles across Eastern Oregon, down the Cascade Range, to Northern California in search of a mate.